


The Witching Hour

by altoinkblots (orphan_account)



Series: MCU Short Stories [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Central Park, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, New York City, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony Stark Needs Sleep, Two in the morning, can't sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 12:03:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14520129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/altoinkblots
Summary: Tony Stark can't sleep, and it appears neither can Stephen Strange.





	The Witching Hour

**Author's Note:**

> You can read any parts of this series in any order. It's just a collection of random short stories because I didn't want to deal with over-tagging something. Enjoy!

Tony’s eyes snapped open. It was the still part of the night when all slept. He remembered his nanny calling it “the witching hour.” The phrase was all too accurate. At this time of night, it felt like anything could happen. 

He glanced at the time. 1:47 AM. What was he doing awake? He groaned and rolled back over, closing his eyes. Except they wouldn’t shut. He tossed and turned for what seemed like an eternity before giving up and looking at the time again. 1:49. He groaned and sat up, rubbing away what little sleep was left in his eye. He looked over to the other side of the bed, his heart sinking when he saw the rumpled sheets. That’s right. Pepper had died years before during the Battle of New York when the  Chitauri had attacked her plane. How had he forgotten? It had been six years, and it still somehow managed to slip his mind, especially in times like this. 

Tony cradled his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Pepper,” he said. “If only I hadn’t been so caught up in… well, everything, I could have saved you.” Tears leaked from his eyes and he clutched his head even tighter.

He knew it was stupid of him to keep talking to his dead girlfriend like this. She wasn’t there and she never would be.

All of the sudden, the large and spacious bedroom felt hot and small. With a surge of energy, Tony leaped out of bed and grabbed a pair of shoes, escaping the claustrophobic room behind him. He didn’t bother shutting the door behind him before racing through the Avengers compound and to his garage. He slipped into a random car and drove off into the night, needing to escape.

He didn’t know where he drove or for how long until he saw a familiar shape strolling contentedly through the streets of New York City. That’s where he was. He looked at the clock in the car. 2:26. He quickly parked the car, not caring that it was in a no-parking zone, and jogged to catch up with the slightly taller figure. 

“Fancy seeing you out here in the middle of the night,” Tony said.

Stephen Strange raised an eyebrow. “I could say the same thing about you, Stark.”

“Where’s the cape?”

“It’s a cloak, and I… didn’t want people recognizing me.”

“Do I count as people?”

“Depends,” Strange said, staring straight ahead. 

“On what?”

“If you stop talking.”

Tony smirked, but was glad that the doctor had said it. He didn’t really want to talk, either. The two men walked through the quieter places in New York before coming to an entrance to Central Park. They stood there for several moments, staring at the closed gates. 

“You know,” said Tony, breaking the silence, “going for a stroll in Central Park wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”

Strange cocked his head. “No, it wouldn’t.” He slipped his left hand into his pocket and pulled out a ring, slipping it on. Tony’s mind flashed back to the battle on Titan where Strange had used the very same ring as a part of the failed plan to defeat Thanos. He didn’t like thinking about Titan, otherwise he would freeze up. The memory of holding on to Peter as he begged for Tony to make it stop as the teenager dissolved in front of his eyes would haunt him until the day he died. Of course, Peter was fine, but the memory remained. 

Strange gave Tony an odd look. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” said Tony too quickly. “Completely. Gonna use that to sneak into the park?”

“Unless you have one of your suits on you.”

“Nah, they’d wake up the locals.”

Strange snorted, but opened a small portal to the other side of the closed gate. He waited for Tony to step through before stepping through himself. The portal closed behind them in a shower of sparks. 

“Lead on,” said Strange, holding his arm out. It was weird to see the sorcerer without his tunic and cloak, but his red jacket suited him for some reason. 

Tony started walking, Strange by his side. Tony wished that he had brought a jacket or something to cover his arms. He rubbed them for warmth. 

“Here,” said Strange, placing his coat over Tony’s shoulders. He wore a blue long-sleeved shirt underneath. “You look frozen.”

“Thanks.” Tony slid his arms into the coat and closed his eyes. It was really warm from Strange wearing it, and it even smelled like him, not that Tony ever paid attention. That smell followed the man everywhere. Coffee, spearmint, and a hint of old spice. Tony closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. 

They walked in silence for a little while longer, before coming to an abandoned playground. Strange sat down on the bench, slouching a litte, and Tony sat next to him, mimicking the posture. Strange’s hands trembled ever so slightly, but the doctor didn’t seem to notice. 

“Your hands are shaking,” said Tony.

Strange held his hands up parallel to the ground. “Yeah,” he said in his deep baritone. “I was in a bad car accident, and my hands got crushed. My life as a neurosurgeon ended like  _ that _ .” He snapped his fingers for emphasis. It was quiet, but Tony got the message.

“Oh. I didn’t know.”

“It’s not your fault. It was mine, actually. I was looking down at my phone, speeding, and not paying attention to other cars on the road.”

The arc reactor in Tony’s chest became very heavy all of a sudden. Instead of responding to Strange, he looked at the playground, imagining a kid --  _ his _ kid -- running around, climbing on the monkey bars, throwing wood chips at other kids. His chest started to ache. 

Strange sat up straighter to look at Tony in his eyes. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked quietly. 

Tony took a shaky breath, making a split-second decision to tell Strange everything. He told him about Pepper and the guilt he felt over that, his PTSD over both the Battle of New York and the battle on Titan, Peter holding on to him for dear life as he sobbed to Tony that he didn’t want to go and the imaginary child Tony saw moments before playing on the playground. He didn’t know when the tears had started, but once they did there was no holding them back. 

Strange wrapped his arm around Tony’s shoulders and just held him as he sobbed, saying nothing. Before long, Tony took several shaky breaths and wiped his eyes and nose. He realized that he had used Strange’s jacket to wipe snot from his face. “Sorry about the jacket,” he said. 

Strange said nothing. He just stared at Tony’s face searchingly. “You know,” he said after some time, “I used to not believe in fate. All that I had in life was due to hard work and sheer ambition.” Tony wiped his nose on the jacket again. “But then I had my  accident and I became a wizard -- yeah, I know -- and then I met you.”

Tony furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“One day I meet the infamous Tony Stark, and he is everything I expected him to be. Sarcastic, self-centered, and --”

“ Sanctimonious?”

Strange grinned. “Exactly. But then we fight this being that is impossible to defeat --”

“Yeah, I remember. You saw, what, fourteen billion outcomes?”

Strange looked down sadly. “And in each one of them, I saw you. The man. Not the hero, not the legend, the  _ man _ . And… I don’t know.”

Tony looked into Strange’s glass-green eyes before taking one of the doctor’s trembling hands in his own. “You’re saying that me spotting you at two in the morning wasn’t an accident?”

Strange shrugged. “Strange things happen during the witching hour.”

Tony grinned, and Strange groaned. “You walked right into that one,” Tony

“Yes, and I’m cursing myself for it.”

They fell into silence, neither man moving. They were content to sit in each other’s presence. 

“I gotta stand up, my bottom’s sore,” said Tony after what seemed like an eternity. 

“I’ll join you,” Strange said, standing up next to Tony. 

“So, why were you walking around New York at two in the morning?”

Strange shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep. It was one of those things where you’re suddenly awake and you can’t fall back to sleep. I thought a walk would clear my head.”

“Did it?”

Strange took Tony’s hand and held it up so both of them could see it. “I would say so.”

Tony wrapped his fingers around those of the doctors and for the first time in almost six years, felt completely at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, sorry about Pepper. The thing is, I ship Tony with almost everyone, and it would be too heartbreaking for me to write a Tony where him and Pepper broke up so I just killed her off. Don't worry; I love Pepper to pieces, but not in this context.
> 
> Don't forget to leave comment(s) and kudos. Thanks a ton!


End file.
